Walkout fervor grows stronger

Thursday

Mar 1, 2018 at 12:01 AMMar 1, 2018 at 8:25 AM

By Emily Droege edroeg@examiner-enterprise.com

More than 500 public education advocates, concerned residents, teachers, and students filled the community hall of the Bartlesville Community Center on Wednesday night during a special Bartlesville Public School Board meeting.

The standing-room-only crowd gathered to discuss the possibility of suspending school in order to give teachers the opportunity to walk out and rally at the state Capitol and locally, probably in April. With loud and frequent applause, the crowd appeared to strongly support a school suspension and teacher walkout.

The Examiner-Enterprise live streamed the nearly 2.5-hour meeting on its Facebook page, which has been viewed by more than 15,000 people on social media as of early Thursday morning.

The Board will not vote to consider a suspension until its next regular meeting on March 12. Members are discussing the idea of replicating the public school shutdowns seen across Oklahoma in April 1990 in response to inadequate school funding.

Many other school districts including the large Tulsa-area districts are watching what happens in Bartlesville because they too are considering taking similar action.

Nearly two dozen residents and school board members spoke passionately in support of local teachers and the need to improve school funding including better salaries for educators.

The walkout option is being considered after the state legislature’s recent failure to pass a revenue bill to deal with chronic underfunding of education and other critical state services as well as finance a $5,000 teacher pay raise.

“We not only need to pay teachers more, but we also need to give them the tools and resources they need to the job. … It’s time to make a significant investment in Oklahoma and also in our public education,” said school board President Scott Bilger. “At this point in time, we’ll have something out there to put as a Bartlesville plan. Their (state legislators) ineptness is not going to keep us from putting something out there that will address this issue.”

Bon Bennett, Bartlesville High School government teacher and track coach, voiced his support for suspending classes and believes that Oklahoma is being run by “people who are trying to destroy public education.” He’s urging the community to demand change from the state legislature and emphasized that education is an investment.

“If you think things will go on just long enough and maybe it will get better, you’re mistaken. You have to make it happen … you have to pursue it relentlessly. History is on our side. The kids do their part. The time has come for us to do ours,” said Bennett.

Several students in the school district talked about how the influence a teacher has helped shape them, while some BHS graduates reflected on the positive impact of educators has influenced them in their careers and adulthood.

Jennifer McMurrian, a small business owner and PTO member at Wilson Elementary School, believes that teachers who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet is astounding and disheartening. Up to now, she said she hasn’t been overly political.

“But I’m standing here. I’m making this statement completely out of my comfort zone, because I believe we can do better. I’ll stand up, I’ll speak, and I’ll use every platform at my disposal for teachers, for education and for the betterment of our state, because the change starts with me, and I hope the change will start with you.”

Chloe Cunningham, a BHS senior, supports the suspension of school as students in Oklahoma should “get the best education possible and teachers deserve so much more.” She provided numerous examples of how her teachers in Bartlesville engage students in the classroom every day.

“The only way to stop this statewide problem is to suspend school and show our representatives that we mean business and we want change,” said Cunningham.

Heather Boyle, a teacher speaking on behalf of the Bartlesville Education Association, said she has received very positive responses from community resources that are willing to step forward to meet the nutrition and activity needs of students affected by a school suspension.

The board first discussed a possible suspension back in September, given the worsening teacher shortage. The concept harkens back to when the district schools were shut down for a week in April 1990 as teachers and parents lobbied the legislature to pass the House Bill 1017 education reform bill. Thousands of teachers descended on the state capitol on April 16, 1990 and picketed there and locally until the state senate passed the bill on April 19.

Board member Nikki Benson has she is proud of the Bartlesville community who support public school teachers and education and is a firm believer in “the power of masses.”

“I feel a great deal of pride for our community tonight and a great deal of sadness that this is where we are. I’m inspired by what I’ve heard tonight and what is it that we have to do next,” said Benson.

“I hear from a couple of folks in our legislation that maybe there’s other people who oppose this, but they’re not coming out to me, so I haven’t heard those opposing views. If there’s other ideas or different ideas we’re open to hearing them. So for me it’s about what we need to do as a community to get the state behind us”.

As momentum for grows for a statewide protest in a push for a teacher pay raise, the school board is urging to the community to express concerns and suggestions to contact them regarding a possible school shutdown, especially in areas related to extracurricular activities, school sports events and adequate child nutrition.

“If you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it. I do know one thing and if we continue to do what we’ve all done, we shouldn’t expect a different result,” said Superintendent Chuck McCauley.

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